Friday, 25 September 2015

Are you allowed to copy text from your Master's thesis into your PhD thesis?


I wrote a Master's thesis a couple of years ago (which is available to view from my University's online service; so it's out there) and am now doing a PhD. Some passages from my Master's thesis is relevant to my PhD and could be used in my PhD literature review. If it matters, the masters thesis is not published and I am studying in a UK university.


Am I allowed to copy chunks of text from my masters thesis into my PhD thesis?



Answer



No. It's called self-plagiarism. You can of course cite results from your Master's thesis, and even quote it, but only if you clearly indicate the source. That it wasn't published doesn't make a difference.


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